Dublin To Join Study On Water System To Serve Borough

Dublin Council has voted to join the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority in a study to determine whether there is an adequate water supply for a public water system in the borough.

Council voted 6-1 Monday night to enter into the authority study and contribute up to $5,000 to fund it. Joseph Biebl cast the dissenting vote.

The authority board of directors voted late last month to conduct the study and fund it with up to $5,000, authority Executive Director Harold Sursa said.

Sursa did not know when the study will be completed.

Dublin has suffered water shortages in recent years. Its public water system extends to only 85 of the borough's 750 dwellings. The remainder are served by private wells, and some of those wells have begun to fail. As a result, the Delaware River Basin Commission, which regulates regional water use, directed Dublin in October 1983 to extend its public water system to all borough dwellings.

However, the cost of building a system was estimated in 1979 at $2 million, an unaffordable amount for the small borough, Assistant Manager Karen Adams said.

Last year, council, in its search for water, condemned a well in Bedminster Township 50 feet from the borough line and a potential well site in Hilltown Township, leading to court battles with both municipalities.

As part of the joint study, the authority will determine whether it should run any water system built in Dublin, Sursa said.

The study, however, does not commit the borough to building a system or having the authority run it. "No one has made any commitments except to do a study," Adams said.